Baking my way round the United Kingdom, trying out regional specialities, traditional ingredients etc., and generally making (and sampling) nice things to eat in the cake, biscuit and bun line. Now with the assistance of my junior chef, Ellis.

Friday, August 08, 2008

Shetland Bride's Bonn/Bun or Bridal Cake

Shetland bride's bonn/bun or bridal cake was traditionally baked by the mother of the bride. It was broken over the bride's head as she entered the marital home after the wedding ceremony and was intended to bless the marriage with prosperity and fertility. This breaking of cake was a wedding tradition observed in many parts of the country, and indeed is also a feature in the wedding traditions of other countries.

In Shetland, the bride's bonn/bun was also known historically as either infar-cake or dreaming-bread. F. Marian McNeill has a note regarding infar-cake or dreaming-bread:
‘A decorated form of shortbread is still [1929] the national bride’s-cake of rural Scotland, and was formerly used as infar-cake. The breaking of infar-cake over the head of the bride, on the threshold of her new home, is a very ancient custom, having its origin in the Roman rite of confarratio, in which the eating of a consecrated cake by the contracting parties constituted marriage. (Scots law, unlike English, is based on the old Roman Law.) Portions were distributed to the young men and maidens “to dream on”.’
At christening feasts a dreaming-bread may also be distributed to guests, for the same purpose of giving maids and young men a sneak preview of their future partner - dreaming-bread is also known as dumb-cake.

Mark Morton in 'Cupboard Love', further explains the Roman roots of the cake-breaking act:
'Romans solemnized marriages through the rite of confarreatio, a word literally meaning to unite with grain-cake (the far in the middle of confarreatio is the Latin far, meaning grain, a word that also appears in farina and farrago). In contrast, the English infare literally means to go in, deriving as it does from the words in and from the Old English verb faran, meaning to go or to travel. Before it was specifically applied to cake, infare could also refer to a feast provided for guests when someone, newly married or not, took possession of a new home.'

Although Shetland Bride's Bonn is generally classified as a shortbread, when cooked on a girdle (griddle), as it would have been historically, it is closer in form to a bannock or scone. When oven-baked the bonn would be crisper and more biscuit-like.
My recipe comes from 'A Cook's Tour of Britain', by the Woman's Institute and Michael Smith (pub. 1984), and I have gone with the girdle cooking option.

1. Rub the butter into the flour.
2. Add the sugar and caraway seeds.
3. Mix to a stiff consistency with milk (get your hands in the bowl to achieve this, and add only a little milk at a time - start with a generous splash).
4. Roll out into a round shape. Now at this point the book suggests that you roll a round 5cm/2 inches thick, but this is way too thick for this small quantity of dough, plus it would never cook in the time given. My dough was about 2cm thick. Cut the round shape into triangles.
5. Bake on a fairly hot girdle for 3 minutes on each side, or in an oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 20 minutes.

I gave the caraway seeds to my junior helper to sniff, but he promptly stuffed a few in his mouth and demanded more. That's my boy! He was less enthusiastic about the finished cake, but then he had just finished a rather large lunch. I must teach him the benefits of pacing your food consumption, and that chocolate buttons don't always have to be downed in one hand/mouthful. I found the cake pleasant enough, but as a cross between a pastry and a scone it is best eaten fresh. I forgot to sleep with a morsel under my pillow, but I would only have had to disappoint Johnny Depp by explaining I am already married.
For more information on the Shetland Islands and local food and drink - click on The Shetland Food Directory, or take a look at this site if you want to be completely seduced and find yourself moving north (west/east/possibly not south).

69 comments:

I read up on a lot of Scottish bridal customs before my own wedding, but didn't come across this one - nor the notion of breaking cakes over people at all, come to that. Maybe I can suggest it when one of my siblings gets round to it...

I love the term "dreaming-bread". Dumb-cake isn't so good (maybe you give it to people to shut them up?)

I have heard of the tradition of breaking bread at a wedding breakfast but never one done quite like this. It does indeed sound like a scone, what was the texture like?I love your posts they always teach me something new. Keep researching.

I've just discovered your blog and I find it fabulous! Very well researched, lots of exotic recipes for my Frenchy self, and it makes me feel like baking (that is, once the temperature in Los Angeles comes back to something decent, in October).Thanks for such a great blog.

Now that you mention it, I'm sure we learnt about the Roman marriage story with bread as part of Roman Law I at university - fascinating how traditions can be traced from so many thousands of years ago into the 2st century. A friend of mine from the Shetland Islands got married a few years ago in Birmingham - I'm going to ask her if she had this cake broken over her later!

1. Fantastic blog! 2. The recipes are amazing; I shall definitely have a go at making a few things after reading up!3. The cultural/historical/personal elements are equally fascinating. There's nothing quite like the how's and why's of regional baking and cooking.

I love the detailed history you provide for all the delicious recipes. Do you have anything traditional for St Andrews Day? I love Sticky Toffee Pudding and wondered what the Scottish connection is for this pudding. I made it recently( with recipe from UDNY Arms) and had to improvise with figs instead of dates and it still tasted yummy.

Hello, do you read french?I speak of your blog here: http://elzevier.canalblog.com/archives/2009/02/14/12536725.htmlI like what you do, even if a recipe written in english is not so easy to cook for me :pOn my weblog, I'm going to speak of Agatha Christie and british cooking, so Baking for Britaint is going to be very interesting for me the next few days.Leave your comments if you want !Congratulations for your photographs, just looking at them makes me hungry!Good bye and so sorry for my poor english

Life just seems to have got a little busy of late. I am in the process of setting up an online business, and that as well as looking after a two-year old, seems to take up all my time. However, my little boy is a keen cook's assistant, so I hope that I will be able to get his assistance on some future posts ; )

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I notice that your blog includes a link to the www.visitshetland.com website.

You may be interested to learn that the old visitshetland.com website is no longer live. If you attempt to visit this address now you will be forwarded to some pages provided by Visit Scotland. However, I am delighted to inform you that there is a new site at www.shetland.org, specifically designed to provide up-to-date, relevant information about Shetland. The Shetland.org site is owned and operated by 'Promote Shetland' - Destination Management Organisation for Shetland - and includes a sub-site dedicated to tourism (http://visit.shetland.org), and another dedicated to assisting anyone considering a move to Shetland (http://move.shetland.org). The Shetland webcams are also hugely popular.

We would really appreciate it if you considered linking to www.shetland.org instead of (or as well as) www.visitshetland.com, as we believe that this would provide your visitors with the best possible information about Shetland.

Thank you for your time and assistance on this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions at all.

ok - maybe we will move to the Shetland Islands. I was thinking of Wales, but maybe we could do both. We currently live in New Zealand....I haven't been back to your blog for ages - which is lucky as I missed your long hiatus and all the waiting for you to resume posting that that would have entailed. I hope that now your business is started, you will be able to post more baking, as it is a truly excellent blog. I don't even bake - mostly I only bake something after being inspired by your blog, and it is always interesting to read in any case. I love the mixture of practical baking knowledge, enticing photos, and readable history